What started as a day of celebration for some, ended as an afternoon of frustration for others, as thousands of people descended on the
Atlanta Cricket Fields in north Forsyth on Saturday, March 23, for the 14th
annual Sewa International USA Holi celebration.

According to Forsyth County authorities, hundreds of
vehicles clogged Keith Bridge Road, reportedly causing half-hour-long backups
as attendees of the event attempted to enter the sporting complex for parking
and turning vehicles spilled out onto the small road.

Deputies stationed at the event eventually closed the
sporting complex to vehicles and directed people down Keith Bridge Road to
alleviate the traffic backups, according to Cpl. Doug Rainwater of the Forsyth
County Sheriff’s Office.

"They did their best to keep Keith Bridge moving, but
it was just too many cars and too many people," Rainwater said.

Patrons of the event began to park in the grass along Keith
Bridge Road, Rainwater said, which created a new problem of pedestrians on the
busy roadway.

“That created a small problem, with pedestrians,” Rainwater
said. “As we know, Keith Bridge is a very busy thoroughfare between Hall County
and Forsyth County. It was just too many people for the venue."

According to Sumanth Yellanki, founder and CEO of the
Atlanta Cricket Fields, prior to Saturday’s event, they were confident that the
site could handle the event, but as more and more people arrived, they were
caught off guard by the sheer numbers.

"We were confident in handling the crowds, but the crowd
was even way more than what they expected," Yellanki said.

Yellanki said that they will be looking at how they approach
future events and how they can prevent similar problems from happening in the
future.

"This event went beyond our expectations,” Yellankis
said. “Because of which we had an opportunity to learn certain lessons. The
plan for next year is to work with the local community, the local churches, as
well as the local authorities and county, because it would have been avoided
100 percent if we would have expected this and worked with the local officials.”

Yellanki said that they already have sit-downs planned with
the county and local community groups to work out a solution that fits
everyone’s needs.

"One thing that we as the facility management missed
was not keeping our nearby community informed,” he said. “That's a very big
lesson that we've learned and one thing that we will make sure that will happen
... so it doesn’t happen in the future.”

District 4 Forsyth County Commissioner Cindy Jones Mills
said that in less than a day after the event took place, she received many
different messages and calls from local residents about the event’s impact on
their day and concerns about future events.

Because the space was not zoned as an event facility and
special event permits were not obtained for the celebration, Mills said the
county was in the dark on what was taking place and was caught off guard just
like everyone else.

"It was not anticipated in their zoning,” she said.
"Had it been presented as an event facility, then the parking calculations
would have been different, the bathrooms would have been different. Everything
would have been calculated in a different matter, even the ways you get cars in
and out."

Mills said that due to community concern, they planned to discuss
the issue at Tuesday’s Forsyth County Board of Commissioners work session and could consider a new county-initiated
zoning condition amendment about parking for events like Holi festival.

"That's where we've got to look deeper into it,"
Mills said. "I'm looking to get more input from planning and the county
attorney about the best course of action."

Due to overwhelming interest for next year’s event, Sewa
International has already announced their plans to repeat the event at the
Atlanta Cricket Fields, on March 14, 2020.

In a statement to the Forsyth County News, a Sewa
representative thanked Atlanta area residents for their interest in the
festivities and said that they would be working to improve the event for 2020.

“With the help of county officials and the
police, whose support we have always relied on, we will make sure that passage
to and out of the next Holi event will be smoother," they stated.